[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

It doesn’t take long for help to arrive, but not the kind that she expected. An old man and his partner Pokemon, thinking that they had time for introductions. “Who knows and who cares?! We can find out all about the fire after it isn’t destroying everything!” Her tone was aggressive, but hopefully he’d understand that it wasn’t meant at him. Few teenagers could claim they’d been caught up in a natural disaster, and though she’d had the sense to try and stop it, her eyes reflected the flustered fear that she felt.

At least he seemed calm. Controlled. At least, much more than she was. It reminded her to take a deep breath – and then not to, because inhaling the smoke wasn’t doing her lungs any favours. His Pokemon didn’t look like water types, but as long as they could do something, anything to quell the flames, she wouldn’t complain. “Alright, let me see another Hydro Pump, Melody! If we can make some sort of line of water, the fire might not spread an- Wha?” Under any other circumstance, a Chansey wouldn’t have been able to sneak up on her, but the chaos allowed Fortuna to get close enough to pat her side. “What’re you doing he- You know what? Not important! Copy Melody and help her douse everything!” Fortuna nodded as much as a ball could, rushing back and past the strangers to aid her team member.

An already powerful move, enhanced by the rain and bolstered by Helping Hand. It would have been a sight worth cheering about, if not for their predicament. The force of her own attack forced the Lapras back a few feet. Fortuna took on a blue aura, mimicking her movements to unleash a jet of water onto the forest. She was sturdy enough to hold her position, but their power took even their users by surprise, and earned a confused glance from her trainer. “I don’t know how you did that, but keep doing it! Did you do that?” She pointed at Orion and Espeon, giving them all of half a second to respond before- “You know what? Not important! Just keep helping, somehow! Maybe there’s some guys stuck in there! Or whatever started the fire! I don’t know!”

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Take a breath? She already took one whole breath, and it barely helped! He may have had a point, somewhere in there. Nothing was going to be helped by her freaking out. Her Pokemon would look to her for guidance, and she needed to convince them that she kind of knew what she was doing. She took a precious second out of her day to stare at the man. Help. Right, he’d said that he’d called for backup. Things weren’t so bad. It was just an inferno. “We’ll do what we can,” she repeated – quieter than him, and than anything else she’d said since she’d woken. “Do what we can. Right. I can do that.”

More of Orion’s Pokemon arrived, and she found herself feeling a pang of guilt. Half her team was already doing their best, and the other two were small and young, with no defence against the flames. They’d be no help scouting through the flames – not without putting their lives at risk in the process. Annie could be overconfident, but she wouldn’t have her partners bite off more than they could chew for her sake. So it was up to Fortuna and Melody, which wasn’t to say that they were doing poorly. In fact, with the Espeon’s support, she thought she could see less orange in front of them! Granted, that could have been because of the growing smoke, but she was choosing to stay positive. “Good thinking, Oreo! Hey, question! Do you think that your wingman could clear the smoke up?” It was so obvious that it was almost insulting, but she’d often forgotten easy solutions when under pressure. “Or I can have Fortuna copy the rain thing somewhere else, if they go off together. Not now, though!” She waved a dismissive hand at the Chansey. “You’re doing great for now, just keep up the super-water.” And so they did, empowered even further by a seasoned trainer’s quick thinking.

The sunrise was countering the darkness that came with the smog, and the heat form the blaze was slowly being cancelled out by the rain. Perhaps it would bother the man, but Annie? She’d spent too long on the road for a little thing like being drenched to slow her down, though the cold might become an issue once all was said and done. At least she’d gotten a free shower for her troubles.

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She didn’t acknowledge the correction, if she heard it at all. What she did react to was him explaining that her suggestion was perhaps the worst thing he could do for them. Of course it was. Only a racing mind could think that giving fire more air was a smart idea. “Right. Yeah, no, please don’t make the fire stronger.” Something about teaching his Pokemon a move on the fly mostly flew over her head, added to the list of questions she could pester the man with once they were done. Before that, they had a choice.

They’d done more than their fair share to help fight the fire. Nobody would blame her for walking away. And yet, as Melody fired the last of her water blasts, Annie hesitated. Perhaps she was too stubborn to walk away from a half-finished job. Maybe she had a particular vendetta against fire and the destruction it brought. Or this was all a ploy to make sure her camping gear wasn’t ruined.


Her gaze went from the man to the ground. They settled on her monsters, her false bravado starting their loop of confidence. Neither trainer or Pokemon would allow the other to see that they were weak, as long as there was a job to be done. When she met their eyes and saw their determination, she knew that she couldn’t give up before they did. Their look was relayed to Orion. “We can keep going. Just because it can’t spread doesn’t mean it won’t do more damage! People- Pokemon and their homes are in there!”

She turned to her sea beast, both hiding whatever strain they were feeling. “You’ve been fantastic, Melody. I’ll bring you back out when we’re near the fire again, alright?” She gave an understanding nod – it was only through the power of Pokeballs that she could be summoned on land, and it didn’t help her move in a timely manner. A ball was pulled out, and a Pokemon was zapped into it, leaving Annie and Fortuna to stare at Oreo expectedly. “Let’s go. Just lead the way.”

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[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

The girl gave a nod, beckoning for the Chansey to follow. “Shout if you see anything dangerous,” she called to the party, though she doubted anything could take them by surprise at that point. Absol, Oreo, Espeon, Annie and Chansey ventured into what most sane people would call a bad idea. At least, the girl reasoned, there was no way she’d burn to death while soaked.

Besides, she was in capable hands. The man’s disposition had barely wavered throughout the disaster, and he was doing a much better job than herself at pretending he knew what he was doing… If he was pretending at all. On the other hand, she jolted at the crash of yet another tree. She tried, and mostly failed, to play it off with a few wild gestures. “Thought I saw something… Never mind, just excited.” Her Pokemon wasn’t convinced or impressed, but urged the child on with a few positive calls.

Soon enough, they found what appeared to be the source of their troubles. Someone, or something, had picked a fight in the night. Whether the darkness had affected their aim, or the culprit hadn’t thought their attack through, they’d destroyed dozens of homes, and perhaps lives. Those weren’t the kind of thoughts Annie wanted to be having before breakfast, and if the man looked, he’d see as much on her face. “It’s just… such a small thing. One bad move and everything’s on fire.” The spirit had left her voice as she surveyed. “And if we hadn’t been here…” She fell silent, shoving her hands into her pockets. Her eyes widened at the ground. “If we hadn’t woken up…”

A hard tap from Fortuna acted as a brief distraction, and the Ranger’s commands provided something more substantiable to focus on. It might have even been enough to keep her happy, but a brush with death was hard to let slide. It wasn’t until he addressed her that she remembered to look up, as if snapped out of a daydream. “…Yeah. Go, Fortuna.” Chansey gave pause, if only to give her master a concerned look. She waddled off to obey within seconds, keeping the Espeon within her sights while keeping at a distance to cast the Rain Dance elsewhere.

Annie kept her head low as her eyes followed the monster, until Orion addressed her again. “Huh?” An eyebrow slowly raised. “No, it’s fine. I… had to. Didn’t want to see that happen again.” Her mouth hung open as if it had more to say, but with a shake of her head she decided against it. “We’ll get going, after your friends show up. I don’t think I’d be that helpful, my camping stuff is either soaked or charred, and I have no idea where we’re getting breakfast from now. Not that I did before, but I bet the stores in Fortree will take a while to open now.” She showed a frown for half a second, but that too was shaken off. “I should be thanking you, Oreo. It was nice to have somebody around to help. Maybe I should say more, but this-“ She stretched her arms out, gesturing to the blackened remains of the forest, and the ongoing blaze in the distance. “Doesn’t feel like the best place to talk.”

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